Monday, 12th June: Theresa May’s gamble on holding the snap general election which has just past last week did not go as planned for the Conservative leader. Although she achieved the biggest share of the vote, she lost the majority and will now have to prove to her party why she should remain the leader. However, this election fail of May’s is not to be mistaken as a change in plan for Brexit, as we were informed by Brexit minister David Davis, who also reassured us that no tears were shed by May after the shock result… We’ll just have to take his word on that one.
Meanwhile, to start the week off, the FTSE dropped around 0.36% following the political rollercoaster Britain is currently dealing with. However, after dropping to 7484 at the open, it picked back up mid day and was around the 7520 mark, not far off yesterday’s close. The opening drop was heavily due to Apple’s performance, which took a hit and was trading at its worst in over a year after Goldman Sachs released a note ‘urging caution’ across the technology sector, followed up by a broker downgrade by Mizuho Securities . Some of the biggest fallers of the day were the software company Micro Focus, and our neighbour Sage Group. Amongst the top five gainers were Royal Dutch Shell and BP, leading the way for the energy sector.
In the latest news regarding the severed ties amongst the Gulf States, Qatar has received support from its friend Italy. On Monday, the Qatari finance minister met with the Italian economy minister in Rome, which was the first of multiple major western capitals Qatar had reached out to. The pair concluded they would carry on with their existing economic and financial co-operation. Qatar have made applaudable efforts to prevent economic damage that could occur after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with them only last week. After the initial shock and worry which flood through Qatar had subsided, today they are now stabilised and have demonstrated their ability to remain independent from the other Gulf States.
The FTSE has truly had a rocky day. After starting the day at a low of 7484, and reaching a high mid day of 7540, it ended down 0.21% at 7511.